


Qui-Gon Does It Well

by Jen425



Series: The Force Bond Challenge [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst, Darth Vader Redemption, Fix-It of Sorts, Fluff and Angst, Force Bond (Star Wars), Force Ghost Qui-Gon Jinn, Infinite sadness, M/M, Obi-Wan raises Luke, my broken babies are broken
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-20
Updated: 2018-05-20
Packaged: 2019-04-25 23:59:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14389833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jen425/pseuds/Jen425
Summary: It’s Qui-Gon’s turn.(But when has Qui-Gon ever done anything right about Obi-Wan and Anakin?)





	Qui-Gon Does It Well

**Author's Note:**

> WHY IS THIS SO ANGS-
> 
> Oh. Right. It’s VaderWan Obikin. Oh. Right.
> 
> Enjoy!

_ Qui-Gon smiles as he watches the younger Obi-Wan make his way through the desert. _

 

_ “My turn,” he says. _

 

_ Behind him, watching him, the older Obi-Wan laughs. Anakin is strangely absent, of course, but Qui-Gon thinks nothing of it. _

 

_ He’ll probably join in watching soon enough. _

 

_ Yoda, meanwhile, is silent, merely watching and waiting for the chaos to begin. _

 

_ This is going to go so wrong. _

  
  
  


The first time Obi-Wan sees Vader, he doesn’t believe it. Yes, he’d known that Vader had survived, but there was no way that Vader was  _ here _ .

 

And, before he can really begin to believe it, right at the moment he thinks they lock eyes despite the mask…

 

He blinks, and Vader is gone.

 

It’s been close to three years since Obi-Wan lost everything, and he thinks he’s finally been driven mad.

  
  
  


_ “Qui-Gon?”  _ Obi-Wan calls into the Force for the thousandth time…

 

It actually surprises him, just a bit, when it  _ works _ .

 

_ “Obi-Wan.” _

 

_ “Master?” _

 

It even  _ feels _ like his Master is there with him.

 

_ “Obi-Wan,” _ Qui-Gon says, and a feeling of warmth floods Obi-Wan,  _ “It is good to speak to you… but, I am afraid, I have important new.” _

 

What?

 

_ “Master?” _

 

_ “I have begun a… competition of sorts, in the future, and I’m afraid that you’re involved.” _

 

Obi-Wan shakes his head. It seems that death has made his former Master no less ridiculous.

 

_ “Of course,” _ he says sarcastically although he  _ can _ feel the serious nature of the moment despite Qui-Gon’s words.

 

_ “Just… be wary, Obi-Wan,” _ Qui-Gon says,  _ “But be hopeful, as well. If everything goes right, the Galaxy may find itself hurtling along a very Lighter direction.” _

 

_ “I will, Master.” _

  
  
  


The next time Obi-Wan sees Vader, he can’t pass it off as a hallucination. Even Dark and weakened and twisted, Anakin’s familiar Force Presence is unmistakable.

 

“Vader,” he says calmly. Whatever this is, it’s reestablished their shattered Master/Padawan-turned-Partner bond, and, although Obi-Wan had blocked it the moment he’d sensed it, it doesn’t quite drown out the pain that Vader must feel every moment of every day. The’d both developed huge tolerances for every known painkiller, during the war…

 

Why couldn’t Obi-Wan have just  _ killed _ Vader, that day? It would have been better for everyone.

 

(Why didn’t Obi-Wan  _ save _ him?)

 

“Kenobi,” Vader responds, and, hearing it, it’s easier to remember that Vader is nothing like his best friend.

 

Obi-Wan sighs.

 

“You could kill me,” he says, “Strike me down right here where I stand.”

 

Right here, in the middle of the deserts of Tatooine. Fitting, that their story ends where it begins. On Tatooine, Anakin in chains that Obi-Wan still can’t fully understand.

 

“I know.”

 

Obi-Wan decides to chance it, taking a single step forwards.

 

“Then why aren’t you?” he asks, “I deserve it, after all of the ways I’ve failed you.”

 

He thinks, if it weren’t for Vader’s mask, he’d be staring right into a golden pair of eyes (Anakin’s eyes). Vader turns away.

 

“I don’t…”

 

Suddenly, a gust of wind sweeps the desert, blowing the hood of his cloak over his eyes. By the time he looks up again, he’s already felt Vader’s Force Signature fade from distance.

  
  
  


_ “Okay,” Anakin finds himself complaining (whining, if he’s honest), “That’s completely unfair. I would totally have run Obi-Wan through just to see if he was real, back then.” _

 

_ Obi-Wan smiles. _

 

_ “Well,” he says, “Obviously not.” _

  
  
  


Maybe it’s because of seeing Vader, but when Owen tries to refuse him access to Luke, Obi-Wan just glares. Now, more than ever, he’s sure that Luke will be needed.

 

(Now, more than ever,  _ he _ needs this tie to his dear one, this light as brilliant as Anakin had ever been if not  _ more _ , this boy so young and untouched by Anakin’s scars.)

 

He ends up leaving carrying a half-asleep two-and-a-half-year-old and regretting every single time he avoided crèche duty at the Temple, usually convincing Anakin or Ahsoka to take over his shifts. The’d both been better with kids than he had been.

 

( _ “Made by a lightsaber, these wounds were.” _ )

 

He has no idea what he’s doing, what if Vader reappears and he sees Luke?

 

Still, the Force tells him that it’s the right choice.

  
  
  


Vader comes back, again and again, and, for a good two years, it’s always while Obi-Wan is alone on a walk through the desert. They fight. They talk. Perhaps, now that it’s too late, Obi-Wan is more honest.

 

“I always knew,” he says, one of the days where Vader seems tired and the stand next to each other like nothing’s changed, “About you and Padme.”

 

“I always thought that you did,” Vader replies, “But I lost the notion when you faked your own death without breathing a word.”

 

There’s a hitch in Vader’s mechanized breathing, Obi-Wan thinks it might be a sigh.

 

“And Padme?” Vader asks, “Did I kill her? Her and…”

 

Obi-Wan doesn’t know why he tells the truth.

 

“You didn’t kill her,” he says, “There was Darkness around her as she died, yes, but it wasn’t yours… she survived just long enough to give birth to your children… your twins. They… they are separated for their own safety, but they  _ are _ safe.”

 

Another hitch in Vader’s breath, though this one sounds more like a sob than a sigh.

 

“Good,” Vader says, “I will not have my Master corrupting them.”

 

The “like me” goes unsaid.

 

Not long after, Vader fades away.

  
  
  


One day, Obi-Wan slips. He calls Vader Anakin…

 

“That is not my name,” Vader says, “I am not worthy of being connected to the man you knew, the man who married Padme.”

 

And Obi-Wan sighs.

 

“I understand,” he says, “I’m sorry, Vader.”

 

Vader’s breath hitches in a way Obi-Wan is pretty sure is a sigh.

 

“What… do you ever tell them?” Vader asks turning to him, “About Anakin Skywalker?”

 

Obi-Wan shakes his head.

 

“Not yet,” he says, “One is too far away, and they’re still so young… but, if he ever asks, I’ll tell him that his father was the greatest Jedi, the greatest  _ man _ , that I have ever known.”

 

“And I killed him.”

 

Obi-Wan finds himself shaking his head once more.

 

“No,” he says, “But I did.”

 

They never speak of it again.

  
  
  


_ “I don’t deserve that name either,” Anakin says, “That man is still very dead… but at least it’s better than Vader.” _

 

_ Obi-Wan sighs. _

 

_ Someday, before forever, he  _ will _ get Anakin to understand their forgiveness. _

  
  
  


It’s when Luke is five that something changes.

 

Luke had been out on a playdate that went overtime, and he ends up so tired that Obi-Wan carries the boy home in his arms.

 

When he shuts the door behind him, however, he begins to feel Vader’s presence. He turns around, and, sure enough, there is Vader, unmasked and largely without armor in one of his chairs.

 

“Hello, there,” he says, awkwardly. Vader still has Anakin’s face in many ways, yes, but he can’t see an inch of skin that isn’t scar tissue, and Vader’s eyes are Sith-gold.

 

“Is that one of them?” Vader asks softly, the vocoder not in place and creating a broken voice reminiscent of the Anakin Obi-Wan remembers, “One of Padme’s children?”

 

It doesn’t escape Obi-Wan’s notice that Vader doesn’t call them his own. Just Padme’s…

 

Of course he does. Everything leading to this moment was about Padme.

 

“Yes,” Obi-Wan says, “Would you like me to come closer, to get a better look?”

 

(He doesn’t know why he asked that.)

 

Vader nods. Obi-Wan moves closer, shifting Luke to allow Vader to see the boy’s face.

 

“He looks like you,” he says, “But his attitude is much closer to Padme’s.”

 

Vader huffs. (There’s a pure sort of aw in his eyes.)

 

“A good thing.”

 

Obi-Wan smiles wryly.

 

“I suppose so.”

 

Silence, for a long time.

 

And, when Obi-Wan turns around to put Luke in the bed, he immediately feels Vader fade away.

  
  
  


Life continues on. Luke starts school and falls in love with flying, Vader appears and disappears with no particular pattern…

 

It’s when Luke is thirteen that Vader really does something worrying.

 

He appears, and he seems almost excited about it, an energy around him akin to when a much younger Anakin Skywalker had finally solved a mystery around some part of the Galaxy that he didn’t understand or turned a pile of scrap into a working droid.

 

“Leia Organa,” he says, and, many years ago, this revelation would have worried Obi-Wan, but, now…

 

Now, Obi-Wan just sighs.

 

“Yes.”

 

A pure sense of joy fills the air, mixing strangely with the Dark Side still strong in his former friend, his former everything (but are they really still enemies?).

 

“I will do whatever I can to protect her from the Emperor,” Vader says, and Obi-Wan can only pray that Vader is better at subtlety than Anakin had been.

  
  
  


_ Anakin doesn’t quite know how he knows, but he can tell things are about to go wrong. He tries to warn the others, but… _

 

_ It’s too late. _

  
  
  


It’s barely a month after Vader discovers his daughter that he decides to kill Sidious. The man has nothing for or over him, anymore, and he decides that enough is enough.

 

By the time Sidious is dying, Vader knows that he is, too. As his first and last act as Emperor, he makes Leia his heir, and Obi-Wan the regent. Then, as Sidious finally dies, and he feels their Leech Bond break, he crumples to the ground.

 

In the split second that he closes his eyes, he feels his true Master, his closest friend even now, appear.

 

“Vader!”

  
  
  


An overwhelming feeling of pain fills Obi-Wan, spreading from Vader’s side of the bond.

 

Not entirely to his surprise, Vader suddenly appears.

 

Much to his horror, he has to watch the man that, yes, is close to him once more, crumple to the ground in pain.

 

“Vader!” Obi-Wan cries, and what has his life become that seeing a Sith die is making him feel his heart ripped out.

 

(So many times, this man has done so, in so many forms.)

 

“Obi-Wan,” Vader says as Obi-Wan kneels down and takes his friend in his arms, “I did it. I… I killed Sidious, and… and I am not far behind him… I… I guess I did destroy the Sith… after all.”

 

Obi-Wan sighs.

 

“Oh  _ Vader _ …” he says. Vader only continues spewing everything he seems to need to say.

 

“I… Leia… she is my heir,” he says, “And you are regent until… until she comes of age, I… there is no sentient that I would trust more. Please… please go.”

 

Obi-Wan nods his head.

 

“Yes,” he says, “I’ll go, but… Vader, please don’t…”

 

“It is… already too late…” Vader says, “The mask, please, my… my Master… off…”

 

Obi-Wan heard the truth in his words. It was too late… he pulls the mask off Vader’s face…

 

His eyes are blue.

 

“Anakin…” Obi-Wan whispers like the prayer it is. Vade -  _ Anakin  _ just shakes his head.

 

“I don’t… deserve that… that name…” Anakin says, “I… My Master…”

 

And Obi-Wan doesn’t know who initiates, but now their lips are pressed together as they cling to each other. Even as visions flood them of a world where forgiveness came too late, where Obi-Wan was dead before Anakin was returned, and he can feel the tears dripping down his face.

 

Finally, Anakin pulls away.

 

“I… love you… Obi-Wan,” he says, and, in this moment, Anakin feels just like he had before, like the brightest star in the Galaxy…

 

But all stars die, and he feels Anakin fade their bond away, a gentle snap from the only remaining strand of their bond the only thing to mark his dear one’s passing.

 

A moment later, Anakin’s body, too, is gone.

 

And, alone in the desert, Obi-Wan Kenobi cries.

 

That night, when Luke gets home, Obi-Wan finally tells him the full truth.

 

The next day, already on a ship to Alderaan, Obi-Wan has to claim simply “Jedi stuff” for why he was already on his way, already knew that he had somehow been named acting Emperor.

 

The Republic is restored, the Jedi are restored, Yoda returns…

 

And the redemption of Anakin Skywalker remains only known by his family. By two children who never knew him alive and one Jedi who’d known him better than perhaps anyone else ever had.

 

Darth Vader was evil, pure and simple…

 

But Anakin Skywalker, blue and glowing and secret, has far more layers to his character.

  
  
  


_ “Why do you  _ think _ I chose a timeline variation where Senator Amidala was a Force Ghost?” Qui-Gon asks, laughing, “It takes two of us to preserve a third.” _

 

_ Anakin smiles. _

 

_ “He found his way back on his own,” Anakin says, “He deserves a happy ending.” _

 

_ “ _ You _ deserve a happy ending, Anakin,” Obi-Wan says, putting a hand on Anakin’s shoulder. Anakin sighs, leaning into the literal phantom touch. Every time Obi-Wan says it he comes a little closer to believing it. _

 

_ Still, his plan is coming together nicely. _

**Author's Note:**

> I have literally no clue why I killed Anakin, and my poor babies are just...
> 
> Also, I have no clue why I have Obi-Wan raise Luke, I just like the trope.
> 
> Find me on Tumblr [@flaim-ita](https://flaim-ita.tumblr.com/)


End file.
